It narrates a turbulent year in the life of a middle-class family in Mexico City in the 1970s. Cuarón was inspired by the women of his childhood to produce an artistic ode in honor of the matriarchy that defined his life. Roma is a vivid portrayal of domestic conflict and social hierarchy in the midst of political turmoil.

Filmed in luminous black and white, Roma is an intimate, gut-wrenching, and ultimately life-affirming portrait of the ways, small and large, one family maintains its balance in a time of personal, social, and political strife.